When I call Tom Meyer a master politician, it’s a compliment. Tom, who died Saturday at age 63, was a politician in the best sense of the word. He was honest. He had practical, sound ideas about how to govern Rockford.

He understood that success in politics requires compromise and that the best ideas didn’t have to be his.

Meyer, a lawyer by trade, was the 3rd Ward alderman from 1979 to 1987, tumultuous times in Rockford government. When he arrived, the city didn’t have an ongoing capital improvements program. Road building and repairs were done according to which aldermen had clout. The city was so underfunded that money was taken from the water fund to pay for other services.

Rockford also limited the number of liquor licenses, giving them an inflated value. If a restaurant wanted to open, the owner had to buy a liquor license from someone who owned one, at whatever was the going rate.

When John McNamara was elected mayor in 1981, with the help of strategist Meyer, they knew it was time to modernize the liquor license system. After an initial plan failed in committee, “Meyer, who was chairman of the Legislation Committee, took the plan and got it passed,” said Bob Dougherty, a former 7th Ward alderman and colleague of Meyer. The vote to end the lid on liquor licenses passed, 11-9.

“It was a fun time. There was no finer person than Tom. For the first time we rated the streets and came up with an annualized program of capital improvements. No politics. We calculated the true cost of a fire engine going out, the cost of a cop on the beat, what was the true cost of operating city government. Ultimately it made it much easier for the council to set priorities.”

Meyer was McNamara’s floor general on the council. His job was to get at least 10 votes on the 20-member council — the mayor would break the tie.

“Tom was just outstanding because he was smart as a tack. He worked the City Council, learned what they like and what they didn’t like, and what they needed in order to get their vote,” McNamara said. Communication was key.

“We met with committee chiefs every week. We had 12 Republicans and eight Democrats on the council. And for a long time I could only bank on two Democrats, Dougherty and Meyer, for support.”

Meyer and McNamara persuaded a reluctant Charles Box, the city legal director, to run for mayor in 1989. “We spent months convincing Charles to run,” McNamara said. They finally accomplished their goal on the golf course.

Page 2 of 2 - “They caught me at a weak moment,” Box said, laughing.

“I’ve known Tom since we were 11 years old, playing against each other in junior Pony baseball at Roy Gayle. We played football together at Auburn. He was a guard, I was a running back. He taught me to be a better player.”

Meyer was strategist in McNamara’s two campaigns, Box’s three and in Doug Scott’s first. His last campaign was helping Tom McNamara, John’s son, get elected to the 3rd Ward in 2013. Meyer believed in surprising the opposition with shoe leather, hundreds of volunteers going door to door, hitting every house once, twice, maybe three times.

Philosophically, Meyer was for the little guy. He knew how minorities had been kept down in Rockford and sought to change that. He was also a realist.

“Tom was not a wild-spending liberal, just the opposite. Someone would pitch something, and he’d say, ‘Great idea! We can’t afford it’,” Box said. “He felt we had to get the house in order.” Meyer was also a peacemaker in the local Democratic Party, helping to heal the rift between the “Zeke Giorgi” Democrats and McNamara’s “new wave” by sharing the party chairmanship with Jim Samorian, Box said.

Running an open shop at City Hall was key.

“We didn’t hesitate to tell aldermen what we were thinking about. We talked about what we wanted to do and considered alternatives. We talked it over. Do you like it or not? Then we’d talk it over again. Tom was so bright he had a way of explaining everything that was easy to understand because he just studied issues thoroughly,” Box said. “And he never asked anything in return.”

“The last extended conversation I had with Tom, he was trying to convince Theo Glover,” the Rockford Park District police chief, “to run for sheriff. Tom thought the time could be right for Theo to take another step.” Glover decided not to run.

Dougherty summed up Meyer as “a no-nonsense guy with a great sense of humor. Advocate your position from 9 to 5, but at 5:01, it’s time to get in an office and cut the deal.”